EBOOM CAPITAL: New EPA Regulation May Discourage U.S. Biomass Projects

by Terry McDonald (EnergyBoom) ...The EPA agrees with the (U.S. Energy Information Agency) that biomass is a renewable fuel with no impact on the environment: “Although the burning of biomass also produces carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas, it is considered to be part of the natural carbon cycle of the earth. The plants take up carbon dioxide from the air while they are growing and then return it to the air when they are burned, thereby causing no net increase.”

So, why include biomass with fossil fuels for purposes of greenhouse gas permitting?

Although this may be hard to believe, the EPA explains it all as a bureaucratic Catch 22.

EPA is tailoring the applicability criteria that determine which stationary sources and modification projects become subject to permitting requirements for greenhouse gas emissions under the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) and Title V programs of the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act).

“We are mindful of the role that biomass or biogenic fuels and feedstocks could play in reducing anthropogenic GHG emissions, and we do not dispute ... that many state, federal, and international rules and policies treat biogenic (biomass) and fossil sources of CO2 emissions differently,” says the EPA.

“Nevertheless, that ... does not provide sufficient basis to exclude emissions of CO2 from biogenic sources in determining permitting applicability provisions at this time,” explains the EPA. READ MORE